BY HENRIK IBSENADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY JOANIE SCHULTZ◊

SCENIC DESIGNER CHELSEA M. WARREN†

COSTUME DESIGNER MELISSA PANZARELLO COSTUME DESIGNER AMY POE LIGHTING DESIGNER DRISCOLL OTTO†

SOUND DESIGNER BRIAN MCDONALD PROPERTIES DESIGNER HILLARY COLLAZO ABBOTT ASSISTANT DIRECTOR DEBBIE RUEGSEGGER STAGE MANAGER CARON GITELMAN GRANT* ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER HILLARY COLLAZO ABBOTT

PRESENTS

Generously sponsored, in part, by:JANEVA & PHIL LONGACRE, ATMOS ENERGY, & RAYMOND JAMES FOUNDATION

Andrea and Keith Redmon – Opening Night SponsorsHolly and Tom Mayer – Pay-What-You-Can Performance Sponsors

ON THE TERRY MARTIN MAIN STAGE

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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S NOTES

Welcome to A Doll’s House, the first play of our 2018-2019 Season! I am thrilled to bring this seminal play to the WaterTower stage. Ibsen truly broke the mold with A Doll’s House in 1879, and changed the face of modern drama, but what’s even more thrilling is how resonant this story feels today. Ibsen is the second-most produced playwright in the world, and this play in particular is one of the most influential dramas of all time. Often called “the father of realism,” Ibsen was formative in making work that was not only realistic, but reflected his community, holding up a mirror to the hypocrisy of society’s rules. A Doll’s House today is often portrayed as an extraordinary story, one of a particular airhead wife, Nora, and her oppressive husband, Torvald, who rules her with an iron fist. Indeed, this is how the text often reads to us in a modern context. My goal with this adaptation and production was to shake some of that off

and return to Ibsen’s intention: that this couple is all too ordinary. And that the problem of the play isn’t simply Nora’s oppression from her husband, but that the society itself has prescribed such rigid roles to all of the characters that they struggle to find their humanity. The problem in this world of 19th century Norway is that the black and white rules stifle everyone’s ability to learn and grow. And while we won’t have the experience of Ibsen’s first audiences, while we won’t see our own living room on this stage and our friends in these characters, so much of A Doll’s House still resonates, even in the United States in the 21st century. We still take on roles, sometimes to the detriment of our own complex humanity. Our impossible search for work-life balance is just part of a larger equation that we are in constant search for: how do we both fulfill our important functions and duties in our work/home/society and still find time to express and grow as individuals? This play is also the first of our season-wide discussion that we are calling “come together.” Each play speaks to a possibility of coming together, and also investigates the things that tear us apart. I hope that you join us for the rest of our season, and for our upcoming holiday production, The Great Distance Home, an extraordinary piece created here at WaterTower last year, that was so acclaimed and asked for that our artists are continuing to develop the piece to perform it here again. It follows the cycle of life, with creative theatrical storytelling and surprising humanity. It’s not to be missed! Thank you again for being here to come together with us at WaterTower Theatre.

Joanie SchultzArtistic Director, WaterTower Theatre

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CAST

Nora Helmer .................................................................................................................................Kate PaulsenTorvald Helmer ..................................................................................................................Sam Henderson*Kristine Linde ......................................................................................................................Gloria Benavides Nils Krogstad .............................................................................................................................. Clay WheelerDr. Rank ..........................................................................................................................................Brian Mathis*Anne-Marie ....................................................................................................................................... Ivy Opdyke

Setting: Norway, 1878

Please join us for a post-performance conversation with the artists Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons.

Information about additional INTERSECTIONS community engagement programming can be found at www.watertowertheatre.org

INTERSECTIONS is generously sponsored by Kathleen A. Messina

OTHER MAJOR FUNDING

THEATRE NAMING BENEFACTORSDon and Barbara Daseke, The Bob Downs Family,

Kathleen A. Messina and Gary Goodwin, Janiece and Jimmy Niemann, Stan Graner

Video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

SEASON SPONSOR

* *Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

† Member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829 of the IATSE

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WHO'S WHO

KATE PAULSEN, Nora HelmerKate Paulsen is thrilled to be back at WaterTower Theatre after playing Jane in last fall’s production of Pride and Prejudice. Other theatre credits include Henry in Henry V (Arts After Hours); The Nina Variations (Brown Box Theatre Project); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.); Julius Caesar (Bridge Rep), and Uncle Vanya (Apollinaire Theatre). Kate also works in TV, Commercial and Print across Texas and New England. She holds a BA in Theater and a minor in Dance from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. Love, Prize & Honor. www.KatePaulsen.com

SAM HENDERSON*, Torvald HelmerSam is proud to be making his WaterTower debut! Sam is a Lecturer of Theatre and Film at Baylor University. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Acting from The Old Globe Professional Actor Training Program through the University of San Diego. In DFW, Sam has appeared in Romeo and Juliet and The Mountaintop (Dallas Theater Center); Under the Skin (Circle Theatre); Two Trains Running (Jubilee Theatre); Hillary and Clinton (Second Thought Theatre); and King Liz (Amphibian Theatre).

GLORIA VIVICA BENAVIDES, Kristine LindeGloria Vivica Benavides was last seen at WaterTower in Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, and is thrilled to return! She has previously appeared on stage in White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (Dallas Theater Center); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Theatre Three); Where Earth Meets the Sky (Cara Mia Theatre); so go the ghosts of mexico, part two (Undermain Theatre); Smile, Smile Again (Ochre House Theatre); and Shakespeare Dallas. She serves as Manager of Education Programs at Dallas Theater Center. Gloria earned her BFA in Acting from the University of North Texas.

CLAY WHEELER, Nils KrogstadClay is happy to return to WaterTower, where he was last seen as Georg in Spring Awakening. He recently played Tranio in The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare Dallas) and has worked at Theatre Three, Stage West, Kitchen Dog Theater, and Second Thought Theatre, among others. Clay is a voice actor for FUNimation Entertainment and is featured on many shows, including KADO: The Right Answer, D.Gray-man and One Piece. He has a BFA in Theatre Performance from Baylor University and is the recipient of multiple DFW Theatre Critics Forum Awards.

BRIAN MATHIS*, Dr. RankBrian Mathis is happy to return to WTT. He has appeared locally with Casa Manana, Stage West, Circle Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, to name a few. He has also appeared all over the country in National tours and Regional Theatres. He is heard on dozens of Anime projects including Ancient Magus’ Bride and Star Blazers. Brian recently appeared in Houston at Theatre Under the Stars and Queensbury Theatre. He is a proud Equity Member for 23 years.

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WHO'S WHO

IVY OPDYKE, Anne-MarieIvy is honored to make her debut appearance with WaterTower Theatre. Recent roles include Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden, Mrs. Grace in A Man of No Importance and Mother Superior in Nunsense (Brick Road Theatre). Also, she appeared as Stella Livingston in Light Up The Sky (Theatre Three); Sylvia in Let It Be Me (Theatre Britain); and as Mrs. Chandler in The Gazebo (MainStage Irving-Las Colinas). See her future appearances as Queen Victoria in Murder Made Me Famous and Lady Fermoy in The Price of Fame (Reelz Network). Ivy trains with Class Act Dallas, directed by Daniel Foster.

HENRIK IBSEN, Playwright Henrik Johan Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. Born March 20, 1828, Ibsen was one of the founders of Modernism in theatre; he is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Pillars of Society, The Master Builder, and John Gabriel Borkman, among others. He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and by the early 20th century A Doll's House became the world's most performed play.Ibsen was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902, 1903, and 1904. Although most of his plays are set in Norway—often in places reminiscent of Skien, the port town where he grew up – Ibsen lived for 27 years in Italy and Germany, and rarely visited Norway during his most productive years.Several of his later dramas were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theatre was expected to model strict morals of family life and propriety. Ibsen's later work examined the realities that lay behind many façades, revealing much that was disquieting to many contemporaries. He used a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. Ibsen died May 23, 1906 at his home in Oslo, Norway.JOANIE SCHULTZ◊, Adapter/Director/Artistic DirectorJoanie Schultz has been serving as Artistic Director of WaterTower Theatre since January 2017. Most recently she directed Hand to God, Pride and Prejudice, and Hit the Wall. Before joining WaterTower Theatre, Joanie served as Associate Artistic Producer at Victory Gardens Theater, as part of the Leadership U One-on-One Fellowship funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation administered through TCG, the national non-profit regional theatre service organization. She is also a freelance director, with recent productions at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre (Washington, D.C.), The Cleveland Play House, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Victory Gardens Theater. She was a Drama League Fellow, The Goodman Theatre Michael Maggio Director Fellow, the SDSF Denham Fellow, and Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab participant. She is an ensemble member at Steep Theatre, Artistic Associate at Victory Gardens Theater, and artistic cabinet member at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. Joanie has also served on faculty at Columbia College and University of Chicago. She received her BA in Theatre/Directing at Columbia College and her MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University.DEBBIE RUEGSEGGER, Assistant DirectorDebbie recently joined the WTT team as their Development & Media Relations Manager and is thrilled to also be involved in creative capacities. Recently Debbie performed in Hand to God (WaterTower Theatre); Donkey Beach (Danielle Georgiou Dance Group); Laugh (Theatre Three); The Tempest, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare in the Bar); Midas and Techie Clowns (Prism Movement Theatre). Debbie has performed internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the world premiere of Birds on a Wire. In addition to acting, Debbie is a theatre manager, director, and aspiring playwright. Debbie received her BFA in Theatre Performance from Hardin-Simmons University.CHELSEA M. WARREN†, Scenic DesignChelsea is a theatre artist with a focus on scenic design, puppetry and devised theatre, newly based in the Twin Cities. Scenic work includes Pride and Prejudice (WaterTower Theatre); Sex with Strangers (Cleveland Playhouse); Cocked, The Whale (Victory Gardens Theatre); Stranded on Earth (Geva Theatre); and fml: how Carson McCullers sml (Steppenwolf Theatre). Puppet design includes Hand to God (Studio Theatre, DC); Puppet Peter and the Wolf (Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra);

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WHO'S WHO

Shrek the Musical and The Little Mermaid (Chicago Shakespeare). Ms. Warren received her MFA from Northwestern University and is an Assistant Professor of Scenic Design at the University of Minnesota. www.chelseaMwarren.comAMY POE, Costume DesignAmy Poe is a current third year Stage Design MFA graduate student at SMU. She is originally from the Washington DC area where she taught theatre at McLean High School for 10 years and was the artistic director of Little Butterfly Theatre Company. Recent design credits include Costumes and Scenery for Blues in the Night (Jubilee), Costumes for Stage Kiss (Circle) and Costumes for Spring Awakening (SMU). She is currently working on Costume Designs for Circle Theatre’s upcoming production of Men on Boats and Scenery for SMU’s opera, Our Town. www.amypoe.comMELISSA PANZARELLO, Costume DesignMelissa has designed costumes around Dallas, regionally, and in NYC. Selected career highlights include: Fade, Constellations (DTC); Enemies/People, Hillary and Clinton, The Necessities (Second Thought Theatre); Trevor, Feathers and Teeth, Wilde/Earnest, (Kitchen Dog Theater); Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Theatre 3) Ears on a Beatle (Barrington Stage Company); Signals of Distress (SoHo Rep.); I Do! I Do! (New Harmony Theatre); The Wizard of Oz, Hello, Dolly! (Post Playhouse); The Rocky Horror Show, Godspell, The Threepenny Opera, Eurydice, Little Shop of Horrors, Othello, Dracula, The Adding Machine (Virginia).DRISCOLL OTTO†, Lighting DesignDriscoll recently designed Drury Lane’s production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Marcia Milgrom Dodge). Mr. Otto’s design work is seen frequently in regional opera and theatre. His credits include Utah Opera, Opera Omaha, Dallas Theater Center, The Dallas Opera, The Huntington Theatre Company, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, Hangar Theatre, Flat Rock Playhouse, Lyric Opera Kansas City, and productions of Legally Blonde and Rock of Ages (Norwegian Cruise Lines). Highlights to his resume include projection design for The Golden Cockerel (Santa Fe Opera); and La Donna Del Lago (The Metropolitan Opera). He received his MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His work can be seen at www.DriscollOtto.com.BRIAN MCDONALD, Sound DesignBrian McDonald is the head of sound at Dallas Theater Center where his recent designs include Public Works Dallas: The Tempest, The Christians, Bella: An American Tall Tale (world-premiere musical), Colossal, The School for Wives, The Book Club Play (original music). Off-Broadway, Brian was the Associate Sound Designer on Be More Chill and is working on the upcoming first national tour of The Lightning Thief. Brian has been Production Audio for numerous world-premiere musicals including, Hood, MOONSHINE: That Hee Haw Musical, Stagger Lee, and The Fortress of Solitude. Brian has also designed for Lyric Opera Chicago, Chicago Voices, and Dallas’ Second Thought Theatre amongst others. CARON GITELMAN GRANT*, Stage ManagerCaron is delighted to be the resident Production Stage Manager at WaterTower Theatre for the past four years, stage managing on productions such as Dogfight, Bonnie & Clyde, Hit the Wall, and the world premiere musical Creep. Local credits include A Christmas Carol for Dallas Theater Center and several shows for the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas. She has been Equity Stage Manager for numerous theatres around the country, and spent seven years as a Production Manager aboard the ships of the Royal Caribbean fleet, managing their entertainment program at sea. Caron graduated from Hockaday and received her BFA from Southern Methodist University. She spent over ten years performing in shows before “retiring” to behind-the-scenes. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.HILLARY COLLAZO ABBOTT, Assistant Stage Manager & Properties DesignHillary is delighted to be returning to WaterTower Theatre for A Doll’s House. Past WaterTower Theatre credits include Hand to God, The Last Five Years, Bread, Native Gardens, Creep, Sexy Laundry, Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Flies Project, The Big Meal, and Outside Mullingar. Favorite productions include Bus Stop, West Side Story, The Producers (Huron Playhouse, Inc.); Footloose, and The ONU Holiday Spectacular (Freed Center). Hillary holds a BFA in Musical Theatre and a BFA in International Theatre Production from Ohio Northern University.

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BOARD & STAFF

COMING SOON

WATERTOWER THEATRE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Grace Daniels Vice President Craig Sutton Treasurer Phil Longacre Secretary Nancy Brenner

WATERTOWER THEATRE STAFF

Bruce ArfstenRosalind BenjetBlake ClemensBarbara Daseke

Buddy Frazer

Tim HoranKita Hobbs

Jennifer MartinezKen Mindell

Rebecca NeefSteven Pipes

Andrea RedmonRon WhiteheadNancy Williams

A DOLL’S HOUSE PART 2 at Stage West Theatre – October 25 – November 25, 2018

THE GREAT DISTANCE HOME – November 23 – December 16, 2018

GUADALUPE IN THE GUEST ROOM – February 22 – March 17, 2019

Artistic DirectorJoanie Schultz

Director of Finance & AdministrationDelynda Johnson Moravec

Associate Artistic DirectorKelsey Leigh Ervi

Development & Media Relations Manager Debbie Ruegsegger

Development & Marketing AssociateKyle Igneczi

Technical DirectorJustin Voga

Production Manager/ Production Stage Manager

Caron Grant

Patron Services ManagerAlexandra Taliaferro

Scenic Artists Ryan Burkle

Cameron CaseyJacob Dowell

Seth MonhollenJohn Rawley

John Ruegsegger

Scenic Artists – University of Minnesota

Angelique PowersNicole DelPizzoStefanie Darby

Amber FrederickClaudia Errickson

Ellie SimonettKezia Germ

Safa SarvestaniSarah Hasker

Light Board OperatorGabe ColemanCameron Casey

ASM ReplacementHannah Wilson

ElectriciansAllie ButemeyerGabe Coleman

Front of House AssociatesClint GilbertJanelle Gray

Maggie HerrickDylan OwenJohn Rawley

Megan Wamsley

Graphic DesignerEmily Holt

Photography/Video ServicesKelsey Leigh Ervi

Pendleton PhotographyLogan Schurr

Evan Michael Woods

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